'In
a city with almost 30% Pavement and 30% Transport Budget being spent on
Bicycles, Vancouver is in an ideal position to build a really strong
and viable cycling city'

The ECF co-organised conference ‘Velo-city’ takes place annually
with the next 2012 global edition to be held in Vancouver, Canada. The
Conference is the Premier Cycling conference and brings together all the
key players in the cycling world during a truly remarkable event. With
Velo-city approaching in June 2012, ECF Policy Officer Ceri Woolsgrove
gives us the run-down on the cycling situation in Canada.

Canada has seen a resurgence of cycling activity, there has been a
42% increase in the number of daily bike commuters between 1996 and 2006
and slow but steady growth in bike share of work commuters, from 1.1% to 1.3%. A
major reason has been the movement of many commuters from the suburbs
back into the cities. This ‘gentrification’ of the city has meant a
denser urban environment and more mixed-use development similar to those
of Europe than to its Southern neighbour the USA. Travel distances have
therefore fallen and made cycling a more attractive option

This has led to tensions between car and bicycle in many Canadian
cities over funding, planning decisions and space on the road, such as
Vision Vancouver’s hotly debated downtown bike lanes. Even more so in
Toronto with its highest per capita rate of bike-car collisions of any
Canadian city and successful mayoral 2010 candidate Rob Ford’s naming
progressive cycling policies as a “War on the Car” with Toronto City Council then voting to remove three of the bike lanes added by the previous council.

Despite these tensions cycling has, thanks to increased modal share,
become a lot safer; from 1988 to 2008, the total number of cyclist
fatalities fell by 66% in Canada with a 40% decline in serious injuries.
Canada has 2.39 cycling fatalities per 100 million km cycled, just
about the same rate as France (2.04) and Germany (2.43), much better
than the US rate (5.74) though far from Denmark (1.03).

The generally larger Canadian cars and higher speed limits has meant
that many cycling advocates tend to promote cycling infrastructure to be
separated from the roads rather than promoting the ‘vehicular’ style of
cycling, mixing bikes and cars together. This has been the policy of
Montréal with a 3 - 1 split in favour of Off-street paths to On-street
lanes, though less so in Toronto and Vancouver with a split of
approximately 1.5 - 1 and 1.2 - 1 respectively. This is still however a
much higher split than the rest of North America with the US favouring
on-street lanes.

This vehicular style of cycling, riding with the traffic, is
concentrated more in the city centres with slower traffic, while
segregated infrastructure is seen as a safer option further out on
faster connecting roads. With less traffic, tens of thousands of
kilometres of rural roads and many long distance trails available,
cycling in the Northern landmass is becoming more popular despite the
limited infrastructure.

In Ottawa there are 140 km of bicycle lanes and 205 km of hard
shoulder used for cyclists. Ottawa also opened its first downtown
segregated bike lane on Laurier Avenue in July 2011 and the Council also
has also approved the Ottawa Cycling Plan, a 20-year initiative. Ottawa
is also a Bixi bike sharing city.

There are 117 km of bike-only lanes, 145 km of shared roadways and
168 km of off-road paths in Toronto, also a Bixi city, with the City
council approving the Bikeway Initiative in 2011, which will include
over 500 km of bike lanes, 249 km of off-road paths and 260 km of shared
roadways

Vancouver will be the 2012 Velo-City host; it is a city that is
becoming more and more cycle orientated, at present it has 400 km of
cycling infrastructure including 330 km of on-street bike lanes. Since
2008, 67 lane-kilometres of cycling routes have been added in Vancouver:
36 km are local street bikeways; 11 km of off-street paths and
separated bike lanes were created; 15 km of painted bike lanes; and 5 km
of painted shared-use lanes.

The 10-Year Cycling Master Plan aims to invest $25 million to expand
cycling infrastructure by 2011 in order to increase citywide cycling to
10% of all trips, to implement new on-street bicycle parking while also
improving conditions of existing bikeways. The city is planning to add
55 km of new or improved cycling routes over 2010 and 2011.

In a city with almost 30% pavement and 30% transport budget being
spent on bicycles, Vancouver is in an ideal position to build a really
strong and viable cycling city.

Ceri Woolsgrove, ECF Policy Officer- Road Safety & Technical Issues-
is from the UK and has worked extensively in London, Brighton,
Liverpool (UK), Hang Zhou (China) and now in Brussels. His previous
employment was for an organisation representing the transport industry
in Brussels. Ceri has a Master’s degree in Globalization and
International Policy Analysis from the University of Bath, and Social
and Political Thought from the University of Sussex